Posts Tagged ‘Simpsons’

Coming from Cleveland, I am proud to know that I came from an area with excellent health care.

Moving to Germany … well, let’s just say that my confidence has yet to be found.

And being pregnant, with a 10-20% chance of developing preeclampsia again, in a country in which my confidence is MIA, is a bit unnerving.

Perhaps that’s why my BP is up every time I check. Every. Time. Or maybe it’s that my genetics are catching up with me. Or maybe just a combination of the two.

Like I was telling Lola today, Germans are all about having choices made for them. From assigned seats at the movies, to the pharmacy in which every medicine you buy has a prescription – and there are NO aisles to browse to look at the offerings – choices just aren’t a plenty.

Holistic medicine is wildly popular here. I can’t tell you the number of prescriptions I’ve had filled for a homeopathic remedy.

Which is fine and dandy. I can dig that. When we’re talking something simple, like allergies or well, nausea medicine.

But we had our tour last week at the University Hospital in Muenster last week of their L&D unit. Their midwives (not nurses, midwives) and doctors all stress a natural delivery as possible. And again, while I’m all for the concept of something natural, I also have a great respect for modern medicine. If I want drugs to numb the pain of well, anything, thank you very much, I’ll take something that was man-made. I mean, do I really want to risk treating preeclampsia with some herbs? Um, last time I checked, preeclampsia kills moms and babies. Hmmm, I think I’ll take the medically proven and well-documented medicine over something organically grown.

Now mind you, I’m actually all about organically grown produce, conserving energy and homeopathic medicine. It was a tapping session (no, not as in dance, but as in tapping on various places on my body while thinking the negative thoughts that I was drowning in) that was one of the first steps of breaking out of my postpartum depression last year. But it was also the zoloft that helped me function daily.

I guess I just am a gal who likes to have choices. Damn I like my choices! And there just aren’t enough of them here … and when they are here, I have to wait 6 frickin’ weeks to get what I’ve so carefully chosen (you know, this isn’t McDonald’s). Oh, sorry, that’s another post from way back that I never wrote about but shared verbally with many. One day I’ll get around to updating the rest of ya’ll.

Until then. Good night. I’m going to bed. (It’s 10:30 pm here and Bubba Joe is watching the last of his Simpsons DVD.)